Field Report – Palouse Workshop

by Zack Schnepf

I had the pleasure to help teach the Palouse Harvest workshop with David Cobb this year, and what a treat it was.  We had a fantastic group, and we scored some spectacular light.  I thought I would share some photos and my experience from this excellent workshop.

Field workshops are one of best ways to learn difficult concepts in landscape photography and David puts on some of the best workshops.  He has a knack for organizing every detail and keeping the pace from feeling overwhelming, he also knows where the best food and coffee are in any area.   He builds a lot of variety into the locations he visits during workshops as well.  The Palouse workshop was no exception, we visited obvious locations like Steptoe Butte, but we also covered a huge area around the Palouse visiting several old barns, homesteads, lone trees, and crop fields.  This kind of variety allows students to experiment with different lenses, compositions, and visual ideas.

Both the students and instructors had a lot of fun.  One of the best parts of a group workshop is hanging out with people that share the same passion.   When the group gets to experience something really special, like the light and atmosphere we experienced on our last night in the Palouse, the energy is electric.  We were treated to a thunderstorm, double rainbow, mammatus clouds, and lightning all during spectacular light at sunset.  It was one of those rare moments when everything lines up at the same time.  It ended up being one of the 3 best displays of light I had ever seen.  It was already shaping up to be a great workshop, but with the conditions the last night it ended up being one of the best.  Here are some of the many images taken while teaching the workshop.